章 1: 1.1
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I sometimes wondered what it would be like to lose everything I have.
Well, not that I would be losing much, but in my infinite boredom, I wondered a great many strange things.
My name is Alexander, and I'm a 26 years old guy with nothing to my name. I had no friends, no girlfriend for years, and my life was as bland and lame as it could get.
I graduated from college, got a 9-to-5 job that had nothing to do with my degree, and started rotting away as essentially became a zombie, dead in anything but the body, barely registering what happened around me as I followed my routine.
I never lived through anything that made my heart palpitate, be it tragedies or great successes, my life was filled with 'fine enough'.
My only forms of entertainment came from wasting my time away on my computer, watching videos of people with an actually interesting life, or reading fantasies I more than once imagined myself in, before the cold, hard truth came back to slap me in the face.
I lived in the real world, and the most exciting thing that could happen to me was to get stabbed by a thug who wanted my money.
'Want to know the meaning of life? Want to live… a real life?'
All until today, that is. As I was watching yet another video of a balding dude, a pop-up suddenly appeared in the middle of my screen, forcing the video to a stop.
I stared at it hard for a second, before sighing. I probably caught a virus from watching porn, I knew I should have had that anti-virus renewed, but now I'm fucked.
Although it might very well end up worsening the situation, I was so desperate for anything to happen that I decided to click on the 'Yes'.
And the world turned black.
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"Not much of a talker, are you?"
I woke up to a foreign voice with a start. My eyes shooting open, the first thing I noticed was that I wasn't in my room anymore.
The logical reaction should have been to feel fear, to dread the unknown, yet for some reason, I felt no fear. Instead, I only felt my heartbeat quicken up, as I took in the people around me.
We were in what looked like a church, and I could see eleven people sitting on the surrounding benches. Most of them were unconscious however, their form drooping as more woke up with each second.
There was also one more person. A teen, who didn't look a day older than 16, was standing in front of us, where the priest would have normally been.
He was dressed quite strangely, as he wore what seemed to be a superhero suit. Had it been in any other circumstances, I would have taken it to be nothing more than cosplay, but for some reason, I could tell it wasn't. A feeling at the back of my mind.
He was currently staring at one of us, who was sitting down. He was awake, too, and wore a protective vest, along with black military trousers and a black wife-beater underneath the vest.
The man was looking back at the teen, and after a moment he said, "Where are we?"
I nodded at that, I had the exact same question. And as I did, I saw the teen's eye flicker to me for a moment, before returning to the military man, replying, "Think harder about it."
I saw the man frown, but curious I did as the teen had said, and as I did, I found a new set of memories in my head.
I was in a game. It doesn't say whose game this is, but I have become a player in it by clicking on 'Yes' on the prompt. As for what this game was… it brought together people lost in life, and put them in various dangerous fictional worlds to fend for themselves, and learn… the meaning of life.
"It's In the Tall Grass this time. Anyone familiar with this movie."
The name rang a bell, and as I tried to remember what it was about, someone else asked, "From Stephen King?"
This sparked a reaction in my mind as I remembered what the movie was. But I also looked to the side, and saw that everyone was awake by now, in various states of confusion.
The teen looked interested as he said, "I'm not familiar with the movie, but probably, yes. What is the movie about?"
I didn't know what this game was really about, but I understood that this teen, despite his age, was above us for now, and I needed to prove my worth to him if I didn't want to be discarded.
So I quickly spoke, before the other one could say anything, "It is a movie about a mysterious field of tall grass. It ensnares those who get trapped in it, manipulating both time and space for those inside. Once you get in, it is almost impossible to get out of it. The cause of it is a giant rock in the middle of the field, which is filled with mystic powers."
The teen slightly narrowed his eyes, a cold smile etching on his lips, "What are the dangers of the movie?"
I immediately answered, "The main antagonist is a man who touched the rock. He chases the other characters around the field, using the knowledge he received from the rock to navigate around the field and catch them."
The teen looked a little surprised, as he asked, "That's it? The only danger is a man?"
I nodded, adding, "He is a man from the 50's, played by the guy from Conjuring. He might be a little stronger than a normal man, as he was able to crush his wife's head between his hands in the movie, but nothing the group of us can't deal with."
The teen showed a satisfied smile as he said, "Good, things won't be hard then."
"If we survive the field, what will happen to us?"
I looked at the person who asked this, it was a woman. She was in her late twenties or early thirties, and looked like she would give birth any second. She was easily 7-8 months pregnant.
The teen looked at her with a complicated gaze, before becoming cold as he said, "When you finish this mission, you will get sent to the next one. Every time, God will bring newbies to replace those who died. Every movie has between 7 and 20 people, which determines the difficulty of the movie."
Taking a second look around, I asked, "There are 13 of us here… Should we be worried?"
The teen scoffed, pointing at himself, "13 is nothing, this is my 11th mission."
With the way he said it, it was clearly an impressive achievement in his eyes, but I wasn't really sure what to think of it. I knew too little about this game to know if this was really impressive or not.
The military man, who had been silent until now, suddenly asked, "If we die in this game, what happens to us in the real world?"
The teen shrugged, "Did any of you ever hear about this game in the 'real' world?"
No one answered, because we already had our answer. If people could come back, they surely would have spoken of the game.
Another of the sitting people, who had remained silent until now, remarked, "A game would be quite boring if there was no reward."
The teen smirked at the one who spoke, a girl with a pair of round glasses, and a fed up expression on her face.
"Of course there are rewards. Every time you finish a mission, you get 1000 Points. Secondary missions may also give you points. You may use these points to exchange for basically anything that comes from fantasy worlds. Sharingan from Naruto, Nen from HunterxHunter, the Force from Star Wars…"
As he said that, he placed his hand on the altar between them, and while looking like he was barely making an effort, he pushed down on it, crumbling it to pieces.
Cracking his neck, the teen added, "To be honest, I don't need any of you. I can, and will, level that field of tall grass on my own. As for you all… except for a few interesting ones, you could all die and it wouldn't change a thing."
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